Christmas Wrapping
by YoungandNaiveStill
Summary: All set to spend the holidays alone in New York City, two friends have a chance Christmas Eve reunion that leads to a little holiday magic. Future Raura oneshot.


_A/N: Now it's time for a little holiday Future Raura fluff. One shot. Again, reviews make good presents. Enjoy and happy Holidays!_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, not the show, not the songs, not the characters. I am not affiliated with nor have I ever met anyone depicted in this fictional story. I don't own Love Actually, anything in New York City, Charlie Brown Christmas, any whisky companies, the Rockettes, Bruce Springsteen, etc. Story and title inspired by Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses._

_Rating: T+ for some semi-mature moments_

* * *

_Christmas Wrapping_

"Ooomphf," she grunted as she landed on the very firm, uncomfortable velour sofa. She rolled off the decorative button that stuck her in the back. Ouch, that was poorly placed. It was probably super expensive, but that didn't mean this hotel couch was optimal from a comfort standpoint. "Ugh," she lamented with another flop onto her back; this was where she would be spending her Christmas Eve…which totally sucked.

She looked around the luxuriously staged room; it was pretty, but cold and lacking in Christmas spirit. The small artificial tree she set up stood out against the stark white furniture, but it did not add any holiday cheer. Instead, it looked sadder than the little tree in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. But, it wouldn't have mattered if she had gone all out. This suite was hardly home; it had served as a poor replacement for the past six weeks while she was temporarily living in New York filming a movie.

It just wasn't the same without her family and friends. She could have jumped on a plane to join her family in Tahoe for the holidays, but Christmas fell on a Monday and there was only one week left to film this movie. It just wasn't practical. Laura Marano was nothing if not practical.

She sighed. She would be meeting up with them in a few days anyway to celebrate New Years, but it wasn't the same. She wished she was sipping hot chocolate in the ski lodge with her cousins and singing Christmas carols by the fire with her parents. But instead, she was here by herself. Merry Christmas.

Some of the New York natives involved with the movie had invited her to join in on their traditions and celebrations, but she just hadn't felt up to it. Honestly, she wanted to spend the night alone, decompress and just go to bed early. She could indulge herself; she would order some food, light some candles, watch _Love Actually_ or listen to some Christmas music by her lonesome.

Bah humbug.

She just didn't have much energy to get all dolled up to go to a party with people she didn't really know and plaster a big smile on her face when she wasn't quite in the festive mood. It had been a super busy year, she had worked nonstop, so a day off here and there really was something to be cherished. Maybe she could even unwind with a nice bubble bath or long shower, that would be a real holiday treat. It was a sad realization.

She gazed outside her window at the tiny flakes of snow falling from the sky as she started looking up numbers for Chinese delivery places. If she couldn't have her father's Italian home cooking, she could at least celebrate Christmas like her Jewish friends did. There were people everywhere, flooding the sidewalks, all joyful and celebrating. Tons of people dreamt of an opportunity to spend the holidays in the city, and she would be shamefully spending it cooped up in her little room.

She let out another deep sigh. Typically this was her favorite time of year. Christmastime was full of magic, wonder, and merriment. And with the new year looming, it was also a time of fresh starts and possibilities.

As she watched the revelers hurry down the streets, bundled up in their coats, their cheeks rosy from the cold, she made an executive decision to order take out instead of delivery. Then she could say she went out and experienced a New York Christmas. Chinatown was way too far, but Carnegie Deli was somewhat of walking distance. And once she'd walked around in the cold, she'd definitely be ready for snuggling up in warm blankets for the rest of the night.

And so there she was, all wrapped up in snow boots, ear muffs, and a fur-lined parka, ambling down the quiet streets of Murray Hill towards the Upper East Side. Honestly, the temperature wasn't that bad and the snowflakes tickled her cheeks. She stuck out her tongue to taste the little specks of ice; she was still very much a California girl and snow was a novelty. Plus, apparently she was still a child at heart, enjoying the little pleasures she could get. She walked past the Chrysler building and Grand Central towards Madison Avenue. She admired all of the holiday displays all lit up, the last minute shoppers all a tizzy to finish their gift buying in time. She loved that.

She dropped a few dollars into a Salvation Army bucket as she turned down 51st. It was blocked off to traffic tonight for pedestrians only. She fell into step with the multitudes of people trying to get a glimpse of the famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. It was hard to miss, an 80+ foot tall behemoth, all lit up in multiple colors. There was a brightly lit star atop the tree, so she closed her eyes and made a wish. Too bad she didn't think it was going to come true this year.

She couldn't spend too much time feeling bad for herself, she thought as she watched the last of the ice skaters loop around the famed rink. There was so much electricity and magic in the air, how could she not be happy? She resolved to make the best of things even if she was spending it alone. It would be a happy Christmas.

She continued north, passing Radio City Music Hall, the shiny Rockettes grinning at her from their posters. The random street performers dressed as Santa and Mickey Mouse entertained children as others sang holiday songs. Now she knew why people loved spending this time of year in this city. She finally reached her destination, opening the door and making her way through the throngs of people waiting for tables or counter space. She apparently wasn't the only person to think of a Jewish deli for her Christmas Eve meal, luckily she had thought to call ahead.

There was still a bit of a wait for her order, but she didn't mind. It was a little nice to be around a lot of people, even if they were strangers.

"Laura?"

She turned at the familiar voice, not even needing to see his face to know who it was. "ROSS? Oh my God!" She flung herself into his arms, catching him off guard, almost knocking him over. She stepped away, rubbing her eyes to make sure it was really him. And it was.

"Hey! So good to see you, babe. Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas! What are you doing in New York? I thought you were headed to Colorado."

"I got stranded. Long story, was supposed to fly out to Denver, but big storm, flights were cancelled. So I'm here, by myself for Christmas…eating a corned beef sandwich." He pointed to his takeout bag. She laughed.

"Order up, Pastrami on rye! Merry Christmas," the man barked at her, with a smile. She gratefully grabbed her dinner.

"Looks like we had the same idea," she pointed out.

"We still got that telepathy thing. Partners forever." He held out his hand and they did their super not so secret handshake, but ending it with a hug instead. "What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be with your family in California?" he questioned.

She shook her head. "Well, I'm working on a movie right now, and we went over on schedule, but it's the last week of filming, so I'm flying out to meet my family this weekend."

"That sucks, I know how much you love your family Christmases. You must be bummed."

"It's not that bad, just different being alone. But it's okay, and now I've run into you! What are your plans for tonight?"

"Didn't have any. Was going to spend the evening alone in my hotel room with a Christmas beer and this sandwich."

"Well, do you want to spend the evening with your old pal in my hotel?"

"You're so forward, Laura. You're trying to lure me back to your place…my how you've changed."

"It has been how many years since the show? People change." She hugged him again, her body remembering his like it was yesterday. She couldn't believe her wish to spend Christmas with someone she loved came true. She was going to get a chance to spend it with one of her oldest friends, she couldn't ask for a better Christmas gift. They walked out of the restaurant into the chilly night. She warmed her gloved hands together. He helped zip up her jacket. "I can't believe we haven't seen each other in so long. If you would only respond to your texts…"

"What? I respond," he protested.

She gave him a look.

"I'm very busy, Laura."

"Yes, too busy for your old friends. I get it," she replied.

"Oh please, what about when you stood me up for dinner a few months ago?"

"My photoshoot went long! I told you," she cried.

"So we're both too big for each other, I guess. It does seem like it was yesterday we were hanging out on set, getting sick of each other, doesn't it? Crazy. I love that we've been trying to meet up all year, but it's never worked out. And now we run into each other. That's what I call kismet. I definitely would love to hang out with you on Christmas. It'll be like old times."

"Yay!" She jumped up, clapping her glove clad hands together. "I'm so glad we ran into each other. Although I was going to spend my night in with candles, hot chocolate, Hugh Grant. But I guess you've ruined my plans."

"You and your _Love Actually_. Don't you ever get tired of that movie?"

"Of course not. Love is everywhere. My hotel is a little far, do you want to cab it?"

"Nah, I'm okay if you are. It's actually not that bad tonight, let's talk a walk. We can walk off the sandwiches we're about to devour."

"You're right." She smiled silently as she strolled down the street with him. Well, this was fortuitous. They'd been trying to reunite all year, but the timing had never been right. Now it was perfect. Things were looking up already.

She hooked her arm in his as they strolled down the street. It was good to be back here with her friend, falling right back into their close relationship. No matter where they'd go in life, they'd always share a very special bond between them. They were partners, chained together, the only two people who could understand what the other had been through. They were Austin & Ally. Nothing would ever change that.

"What?" he asked, she was staring at him.

Her eyes crinkled happily, as she gave him a once over. He wore a puffer jacket, flannel shirt, jeans and a beanie, and he looked the same, yet more mature. Different. Grown. "Look at you, Ross. You look good."

"_You_ look good. Pretty as ever." And she was so pretty. He wanted to brush the little white flecks of ice out of the long brown hair poking out of her beanie. He wanted to warm her rosy cheeks with his hands.

"Aww, thanks, buddy." She punched him in the arm. "So, what's new? The last song you sent me was great. Obsessed with it."

"Thanks. Working on some things. No much else new though. Same old. What about you? Is this the romantic comedy you're working on?"

"Yeah, almost done. It's cute, I think it'll be good. At least I'm hoping it'll be good."

"I'm sure it will be." They passed a bar with Christmas lights twinkling in the windows and Bruce Springsteen's Santa Claus is Coming to Town blaring from within. "Laur—it's the Boss! We have to go into this place."

She was a little disappointed. She'd wanted to catch up and have a conversation with her friend, not hang out in a loud, dingy dive bar. But, she hid it, after all, he looked so excited to hear his favorite. He was like a kid on Christmas. How could she say no? "Of course!"

He took her hand and led her into the place. It was fairly deserted, a few stragglers here and there were enjoying the yule tide carols blasting from the jukebox.

He caught the attention of the bartender, "Hey, can we get some drinks?" He turned to her, "What you want?"

"Umm, I'll have a diet coke."

"What? No. We're adults, we can drink. You're drinking with me," he insisted.

"I don't want to be hungover on Christmas. That seems a little sacrilegious."

"We haven't seen each other in years. Come on, we gotta do some shots. Can we get two shots of Fireball?" he called out. The bartender gave him a nod of approval.

"What's Fireball?" she asked, alarmed.

"Only the best cinnamon whisky. It'll give you some Christmas spirit."

"Oh my God, you're trying to kill me."

"Well, I'm not going to order anything too sweet, you'll throw up. I know you," he cocked his eyebrow at her. "Trust me, this stuff is good."

And it was. It was like drinking Red Hots, and she hated to admit it but he was right. And so she had another. And that led to of course another, until they were laughing and joking and teasing each other just like old times. There was a piano in the corner, and of course they had to sit down like old times and tinker on the keys. Their hands touched, and just like the old days, a static shock ran through both of them. He had his arm draped over her shoulder when the bartender stopped right in front of them.

"Hey, guys, thanks for coming in tonight, but we're closing early…because you, know it's Christmas. Anyway, you guys should go home and have a happy holiday."

"Aww, spoiling our fun. Happy Christmas to you, mate."

"Thanks, man. Merry Christmas. And you guys should look up, it's kind of tradition."

Both of their heads shot upwards, seeing mistletoe.

"Aww, mistletoe." He gave her a sloppy kiss on the lips, and she wrinkled her face away from his.

"Ew, messy drunk!" she winced, secretly savoring the way his spicy tongue met her cinnamon lips. This wasn't foreign to them, having kissed dozens of times over the years, but it always felt new to her.

They stumbled out onto the sidewalk, narrowly missing some pedestrians on the now emptying streets.

"Oh my god, why did I let you talk me into this?" she whined as she struggled to open the door.

"Because you trust me and I would never lead you astray. You're having fun aren't you?"

"Always with you, Ross."

He almost tripped over his shoes as he landed on the uncomfortable couch. "This couch sucks."

"Right?" she laughed, realizing that somehow things were aligned and they were totally on the same wavelength tonight.

"You would think they could afford something soft and plush. If I ruled the world…" he trailed. "Hey, Laura?"

She lay staring at the ceiling, the mixture of his cologne and the many drinks she had drunk making her feel a little silly. "Yeah?"

"I'm glad we ran into each other. There's really no one I'd rather spend this holiday with…I mean it."

"I know, who would have thought two old friends would run into each other in a Jewish deli. It's like the perfect holiday movie plot. It's our meet cute."

He nodded, staring at her lips. It would be the perfect story, but there was one thing missing. He never understood why nothing had ever happened between them. There was always an underlying attraction. There still was. Even though their brief kiss in the bar had meant to be silly, a little piece of him was curious as to how it would feel again.

He really did believe in fate. He had just been thinking about her as he walked past the big tree in Rock Plaza, having thought it had been far too long since they had talked. A few emails and texts here and there just weren't enough.

And just like that, she appeared, like one of the angels from a Christmas display.

"What you got here?" He snooped around some shopping bags on her coffee table. He pulled out a nightie. "Ooh, what is this? This is sexy. Did you know I was coming over?" he winked.

She grabbed it from him. "Ew, no," she protested. "Give me that, Snoopy." She stuffed it back into the bag.

"Snoopy, come home," he blurted out, cracking himself up. She pushed him over on the couch, and he lay there, his limbs draped all over the place. "So what's your deal? Are you dating anyone right now? Is that for someone special?" he interrogated, a smug smile on his face.

She blushed. "No."

"Come on, there's gotta be someone."

"There's lots of someones," she replied snarkily.

"Oh, excuse me."

She changed the subject. "Are you seeing anyone, Mr. Modelizer?"

"I'm not a modelizer," he insisted. She gave him a knowing look. "I just like to spend time with beautiful ladies. I'm here with you, aren't I?"

She rolled her eyes at the line. "Only because I tricked you, right? You're never gonna change, are you?"

"Only if _you_ wanted me to."

"Of course not." She didn't want to read more into his comment. Even though they both knew there was always a connection between them, they had never acted upon it, both scared and frankly a little shy. When they were younger, they could hide behind of the guise of their professional working relationship, but now here they were, in the free and clear. But she didn't want to get her hopes up. She didn't want another Christmas letdown.

He got up and grabbed a bottle of champagne. It had been a move in gift from the producers of the movie. Clearly, she had not had an occasion to drink it yet. "Can I?"

"Oh, well, help yourself. Mi casa es su casa," she commented dryly.

He smirked, "Don't mind if I do." He expertly popped the cork, letting the bubbles flow out into her sink.

"You gonna share?"

"Nah, you don't want to be hungover on Christmas."

"You're a mean one, Mr. Lynch," she sang.

"Oh my god, you still got your puns…" he stated disapprovingly as he brought her a flute. "Cheers, to running into old friends."

"Cheers," she toasted.

They both sat across from each other, reminiscing about old times and updating each other on their lives. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed her laughter. "I missed you."

"Me too." She cocked her head to the side and they stared at each other until the silence became a little awkward. She yawned and looked at her watch. "Oh, it's officially Christmas. Merry Christmas."

"Oh, so I can officially give you your present."

She stared at him quizzically, "Present—?"

He silenced her by leaning across the couch and taking her mouth with his. She reached her hands up, and he thought she was going to push him away…but instead her hands wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer. She climbed into his lap, effectively pushing him down, her knees straddling him, as their tongues moved in concert. Her small hands kneaded the hairs on the back of his neck, gently massaging as his hands started to move down her body. He looked up at her, exploring the depths of her dark, eyes. He saw endless potential within them, and that made his heart race. His hands squeezed her ass, as her back arched back a little in surprise. His lips found her earlobe, sucking as she softly whimpered.

She raised her neck for his lips to engage its skin, her hands working down his sides until they found the hem of his shirt. She slid her icy hands across his hot abdomen, raking her nails across every defined muscular line. Every inch of him tensed at her touch, and his tongue found hers again. He flipped them so that she now lay flat on her back, her hair splayed out like a halo on the cushion. His hands found her breasts, cupping them softly from the outside. His fingers made quick work of unbuttoning her shirt, letting it fall open to reveal her very ample flesh pouring out of a black lace bra. He kissed his way down her sternum, nipping at the skin between as she quietly moaned her approval, her hand running through his golden locks. Her chest heaved up and down as he continued his descent, spreading kisses over her stomach, his arms locking behind her knees so that he could pull her closer to his mouth, moving down, down…his lips wrapping around the edge of the top of her jeans to pull the flap off the button.

Her hand pushed his head away. He snapped up to meet her eyes.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?"

It took her a few seconds to catch her breath. "Yeah, more than okay. But can we not on this shitty couch?"

He smiled. "It's your present, we can do it wherever you want."

He scooped her up in his arms, carrying her towards the bedroom. He shed his shirt quickly and grinned as he noticed her eyes fall upon his chest. She shimmied out of her shirt, before pulling him in by the loops of his jeans for another kiss. She made quick work of discarding his jeans and he of hers, then stripping the rest of their underwear off, throwing the garments haphazardly across the room. He laid on top of her, balancing on his arms, his fingers playing with her hair. She could feel all of him pressing against her hip, and it was weird to her, but in a _really_ good way. She had wanted this for so long, but she never thought it would happen. She couldn't believe it. It was like a Christmas miracle.

"Merry Christmas, Laura," he whispered.

She snapped out of the memory as she felt two arms wrap around her. She hurriedly placed the last ornament on their tree as she turned up to him. She pulled on his scarf, leading him down to her level.

"Well, hello, stranger. Merry Christmas," she greeted, touching her nose to his. Still standing on her tiptoes to reach him, she initiated a long and slow kiss.

"Hi, so great to be home." He looked around the room, seeing the lights and the tree and the pots of poinsettias. She had really outdone herself readying their house for his holiday homecoming. He buried his nose in her hair, taking her in.

"I missed you," she murmured into his jacket, squeezing him close.

"I missed your face," he leaned down for another lingering kiss. "What were you thinking just now? You had the cutest look."

"Just about our Christmas last year, and how lucky we are to have run into each other."

"Yeah, I was thinking about that on the plane myself. Well, we can relive a little bit of it tonight," he said mysteriously. He reached into his bag and pulled out a greasy paper bag. "Corned beef and pastrami straight from New York and some cinnamon whisky."

"Yum. Perfect Christmas Eve dinner. Although, as you may recall, we did a couple of other things before even getting to the food…" she said slyly, starting to slip his jacket off over his shoulders.

"Mmm, reindeer games." He pecked her on the forehead. "I like the sound of that."

Her face brightened, "I'm so glad you're home, I couldn't imagine a better Christmas gift."

He palmed the small velvet box in his pocket. "Well okay, but let's just wait and see what Santa brings you this year."


End file.
